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Did Uhuru lie on teachers’ salaries in speech?

Posted on Sep 21, 2015
46011 Views

President Uhuru Kenyatta addresses the nation on September 20, 2015 on the teachers pay dispute at State House, Nairobi

By EVELYNE MUSAMBI

Teachers on Sunday evening took to social media platforms to highlight what they termed as ‘errors and lies’ contained in President Uhuru Kenyatta’s speech to the nation.

Several documents depicting salary comparisons between teachers and other civil servants were shared online by different users, who claimed that the figures presented by the President were inaccurate.

“Teachers are mismanaged across all nations in Africa…when somebody tells the President that a Kenyan P1 teacher is paid Sh23,692 yet they earn Sh16,692 it is misleading,” said Knut secretary General Wilson Sossion during a phone interview with NTV.

Teachers also posted figures that they claimed were salaries of the Teacher’s Service Commission (TSC) employees that showed that the lowest paid worker, a clerical officer (1), earns Sh32,250.

The true position however is that the lowest paid teacher in job group G earns Sh16,692 as basic salary, Sh3,000 as house allowance and Sh4,000 as commuter allowance. The total is Sh23,692. The President announced the correct figure.

With regard to President Kenyatta’s effort to compare salaries of Kenyan teachers to their continental counterparts, online users termed comparisons to Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda as unfair.

They argued that salary levels in Kenya, being the economic power house of the region, can not be compared to her neighbours.

Mr Sossion that the union will move to court on Monday morning to sue senior government officials, including Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi, of contempt.

The President on Sunday evening, in a televised address to the nation, ruled out paying teachers higher salaries saying that doing so would raise the public wage bill.